A MOMENT TO SHARE with Glenn Cooper

Glenn Cooper is an internationally bestselling thriller writer!!!

To celebrate the release of The Down trilogy, I’ve decided to interview the one and only Glenn Cooper, who creates excellent characters, great concepts and wonderful stories.

Share, Like, Comment, and Stay Thrilled… 🙂 🙂 🙂

Glenn was born in New York City and grew up in nearby White Plains. He attended White Plains High School before enrolling at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts where he graduated from Harvard with an honors degree in archaeology. He then attended Tufts University School of Medicine and did his post-doctoral training at the New England Deaconess and the Massachusetts General Hospitals becoming a board-certified specialist in Internal Medicine and Infectious Diseases. After practicing medicine, Glenn began a research career in the pharmaceutical industry which culminated in an eighteen-year position as the Chairman and CEO of a biotechnology company in Massachusetts. Glenn began writing screenplays over twenty years ago and his interest in movies prompted him to attend the graduate program in film production at Boston University. He is currently the chairman of a media company, Lascaux Media, which has produced three independent feature-length films. In 2006 Glenn turned his hand to novel-writing. His debut novel, THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD, the first in a trilogy, became an international bestseller and was translated into thirty languages. All of his seven published books have become top-ten international best-sellers. Glenn currently lives in New Hampshire.

Glenn Cooper

Hi Glenn, thank you for participating in this interview.

• Tell me a little about yourself and your background? What were you like at school? Were you good at English? What are your ambitions for your writing career? Which writers inspire you? 

I have an undergraduate degree in archaeology from Harvard and then got a medical degree at Tufts before becoming a practicing infectious diseases physician. Later when I was doing research in biotechnology I took up writing screenplays as a hobby. After a rather unsuccessful Hollywood career with a few script sales but no productions, I turned to novels. Fortunately, my first book, Library of the Dead, was a success with two million copies sold in thirty translations. Now, eight years later, I’ve just finished my tenth novel and have sold over six million books so I’m pretty sure I’m not going back to script writing anytime soon.

• What was your life like before becoming an author? 

For eighteen years, up to 2009 when first novel was published, I was the CEO of a publicly traded biotech company so my lifestyle was pretty far away from the life of a novelist. I must say I prefer a writer’s life in virtually every dimension. About the same time my first book came out I sold my company so I didn’t have to choose between careers. I’ve been writing full-time ever since.

• Which comes first? The character’s story or the idea for the novel? 

For me it’s the idea. I write rather complex historical thrillers with religious and philosophical themes and like to find characters that fit the storyline. Sometimes my hero is an FBI agent, sometimes an archaeologist, once, a Catholic nun.

• Why do you write?

I write because I have stories to tell and if they don’t get onto the page I tend to get cranky.

• So, what have you written?
  

  Books by Glenn Cooper

1. The Library of the Dead trilogy
   
2. The Devil Will Come
3. The Tenth Chamber
4. The Resurrection Maker
   
5. The Down trilogy
   
   

   The Down trilogy

• Where people can buy or see them?

In the US I’m published exclusively on Amazon. In Europe my books are available pretty much everywhere.

• Give me an insight into your main character of your last book. What does he/she do that is so special?

In the Down trilogy, a modern take on the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice, John Camp is an ex-soldier, a man with a troubled past, who must journey to Hell to rescue the woman he loves, a physicist whose experiment opens a connection between the two worlds. Who wouldn’t like a guy who literally goes to Hell and back for his lady?

• What sparked the idea for your books? 

I like subjects that interest me like explorations of fate and predestination, the nature of evil, the intersections between faith and science. If I’m passionate about a subject and do a lot of detailed research, there’s a chance that readers will be too.

Fans of Glenn…

• How do you market your books?

 In Europe and Latin America I’m published by large publishing houses. I started with large publishers in English language territories but wasn’t as happy with my results so I created my own imprint, Lascaux Media. So I’m a hybrid author, enjoying traditional publishing in part of the world and self-publishing in the rest.

• Do you have any advice for other authors on how to market their books?

If you work with a traditional publisher, be their partner. They’ll find ways to work with you and will welcome your cooperative marketing efforts. If you self-publish, then you’ve got to be prepared to do it all — cover design, hiring editors, doing all the marketing, social media, you name it. It’s hard work but it can be really rewarding, personally and financially.

• What do you do to get book reviews?

Glenn’s Website Page!

I ask my readers for them via social media and interact with a lot of bloggers.

• What advice do you have for someone who would like to become a published writer?

Read a lot and write a lot. And be persistent. When I was looking for an agent I wrote 66 query letters. Only one agent said yes and that was enough.

• How can readers discover more about you and your work?

Website | Facebook  | Twitter – @glenncooper

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It was a great privilege for me to get to interview Glenn Cooper, who has inspired me in many different ways. Thank you Glenn!!! Good Luck with everything!  

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